i'm on a river that winds on forever
by smorgasbord
Summary: A series of short stories that chronicle the parenting experience Lucius and Narcissa would have had if Draco was a girl (and also Voldemort maybe, probably, definitely doesn't exist here). Originally from tumblr.
1. Chapter 1

A: Apples

She's been craving apples for a while now. Not just any apple either, granny smiths, good for pastries and apple sauce and eating in general. Narcissa hums to herself as she checks on the pie in the oven; it's the first time she's stepped foot in the kitchen since she's been married but she really didn't want Dobby touching her apples.

"Cissa?" Lucius is at the door with a raised eyebrow and his traveling cloak draped over his arm, "I've been looking for you," her husband says as he strides into the room, "What are you doing?"

"Baking"

She reaches for him and he drops his expensive cloak carelessly onto the nearest chair to wrap his arms around her.

"Baking?"

"Apple pie"

"Apples again?"

She looks at him through her lashes and rests her chin on his chest, "I like apples,"

Her gaze is strangely intense and Lucius feels as though he's missing vital information when she finally gives up the staring contest to giggle into his shoulder.

"Oh Lucius," she sighs, "I'm pregnant."


	2. Chapter 2

B: Bear

Bear is not actually a bear but he might as well be. The giant Doberman currently curled around Narcissa's feet had been a constant fixture in the house once she convinced her husband to let it keep her company while he was at work. Lucius for his part had protested valiantly but he was no match for Cissa's teary eyes and pleading pout.

"Do you think it's a good idea to have him inside the house while you're in this state?" he asks, adjusting his collar in front of the mirror.

"What state? I'm pregnant Lucius, not deathly ill."

"You know what I mean Cissa."

"I'll have you know that Bear is very well behaved and an excellent companion," she sniffs and looks up at him with her large blue eyes, "It gets terribly lonely here all by myself."

"You can come to work with me if you want," Naricssa throws his reflection an endearingly frustrated pout and Lucius abandons his collar to sweep his wife up from the fainting couch, "or I could stay home with you today."

"Really?" she smiles brightly, "What about work? What will Fudge say?"

"What do I care what Fudge has to say? I'm Lucius Malfoy."


	3. Chapter 3

C: Café

Lucius Malfoy is not spying on his wife. He is following her, at a leisurely place, cleverly concealed behind potted plants and convenient corners and crowds of people who are entirely too chipper for a chilly Monday morning. It's not that he's being overprotective (in fact Bellatrix says he's not protective enough), it's just that his very pregnant wife had recently begun taking early morning trips and well, where does a seven months pregnant witch with an addiction to dangerously tall shoes even go at 8am in the morning?

He loses sight of her when an overly enthusiastic shopkeeper thrusts her wares under his nose and nearly knocks him to the ground. Cissa disappears in the two seconds it takes for him to melt the shopkeeper with his venomous stare. Lucius spends twenty minutes scouring the street for her and almost tears down the door of the hole-in-the-wall café when he spots her coat through the window.

"Cissa!"

Narcissa's tucked away on a high stool by the window, a steaming mug in her hands, "Butter pumpkin," she says lifting the mug slightly, "decaf."

And that is how Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy started the Monday-morning-trip-into-town-for-coffee tradition.


	4. Chapter 4

D: Draco

"And what if it's a girl?"

"Still Draco,"

"But that's a boy's name!"

Lucius stops his pacing when he hears his wife's sigh, "Cissa…"

"Oh darling, we've discussed this. I like Draco, I want our baby's name to be Draco."

"But…"

Narcissa rises from the bed with grace that a heavily pregnant witch should not have and gently takes her husband's hands in her own, "Please Lucius, we've gone through hundreds of baby names already. I don't want to do it all over again." She musters up her best pathetic-puppy-look and guides his hands to the swell of her belly, "Baby Draco," she says with purpose.

He lets his fingers roam over her stomach, "Baby Draco."

Lucius Malfoy can never deny his wife.


	5. Chapter 5

E: Expecting

He's not sure what he was expecting but this isn't it. Cynus' blood pressure goes through the roof as he watches his tiny daughter teetering on her feet, trying to balance the weight of her rounded belly.

_Dear Merlin his baby is having a baby!_

His covert mission of glaring at the Malfoy boy is thwarted when his daughter approaches him with a shining smile, "Oh daddy, I'm so happy!"

She's beautiful and glowing and Malfoy's behind her every step, making sure his quixotic wife doesn't fall over in those ridiculous shoes she insists on wearing.

Perhaps Lucius knows what he's doing after all.


	6. Chapter 6

F: Father

In retrospect inviting both of their fathers over at the same time was probably a bad idea.

"The stairs, Lucius, you forgot the stairs!"

"And the tables! All those sharp corners…"

Abraxas and Cygnus had been inspecting every corner of the manor for the past hour baby proofing everything. There were currently 52 cushioning charms laced around the halls outside their bed chamber and at least 10 on their actual bed.

"Father," Lucius rubs his temples tiredly, "there's really no need to baby proof the stables…"

"No need?" Abraxas somehow manages to make his reply sound incredulous, condescending, and concerned at the same time. He eyes his son with the kind of parental fondness that comes from knowing that your child is a bit too spoiled for his own good, "Do you not remember the summer you tried to steal your mother's pony for a joy ride?"

"You stole a pony?" Narcissa's giggling into his neck and Lucius regrets saying anything at all as his father and father-in-law take a break from their work to dissect his childhood adventures.


	7. Chapter 7

G: Girl

The healer's report is sitting on his desk among mountains of books and stacks of magazines, all accumulated within minutes of their leaving the maternity clinic. Lucius is reading and panicking, mostly panicking.

_A girl! Their child is a girl! Oh Merlin what is he going to do?_

Of course Narcissa was overjoyed, _"We're having a daughter!"_ but Lucius, well, he was terrified.

"There's really nothing to worry about," she says, running her hands through his hair, trying her best to distract him from the platitudinal reading material.

"You say that because you've had a seven month head start."

"I say it because you'll be a wonderful father."

"You think?"

"I know."


	8. Chapter 8

H: Hall

The halls in Malfoy Manor are too long, Narcissa thinks this when the contractions start and she can't even manage to walk the few steps to the bedroom. She's been feeling unsettled all day, moody and hormonal and just not pleasant.

There was supposed to be one more month, they were still deciding on the final touches in the nursery, and oh god she's not ready for this!

She collapses in the middle of the hall, curls up, and sobs.

Lucius is in the middle of a meeting when Dobby apparates into the conference room stuttering about _blood_ and _Mistress Malfoy is crying_ and _the baby, the baby!_

He's gone in a flash, leaving his panicked house elf and a room full of confused investors.


	9. Chapter 9

I: Introduction

It wasn't supposed to happen like this. They had agreed on a hospital birth with all the necessary drugs and potions, he was supposed to be in there with her. But by the time the healers arrived Narcissa had lost too much blood.

They forced him to stay outside and cast a silencing charm on the doors, he could still hear her though. She tried to be quiet, tried to conceal her pain from him. Every cry dug into his ears, his heart, they tore through his mind and ripped it into little bloodied pieces.

It's been fourteen hours. His back is pressed against the wall, fists clenched so tightly his bones might break. _There's nothing you can do,_ they told him, _her body is too weak to handle this, _a heavy hand on his shoulder, _when the time comes…_They were forcing him to choose.

And when the doors open he thinks they're going to console him, to tell him that his wife and child have left him before they even had a chance to be a real family. The nurses are carrying baskets full of bloodstained sheets and the healer is too tired to look at him, just gestures for him to enter. Lucius runs in like a madman.

Narcissa's too pale but she looks more beautiful than he's ever seen her, nestled in a sea of blankets with their baby in her arms. She smiles at him.

"Lucius, let me introduce you to our daughter."


	10. Chapter 10

J: Jealousy

It's a familiar feeling, the twisting in his stomach and the claws gripping his throat. It's jealousy and he hasn't felt this since that time before Cissa was his. The healer makes a corny joke and Cissa laughs and baby Draco favours him with a toothless grin and Lucius is grinding his teeth together trying to restrain himself from cursing the man.

Healer Jenkins is not a stupid man, but he's not blind either, Mrs. Malfoy is a beautiful creature and he's damn well going to enjoy his time with her. His touches linger a little too long and he's standing a bit too close but Narcissa's too busy with the baby to notice. Lucius on the other hand has the man pinned to the ground with his stare.

Finally the checkup is finished and the healer is rushed out without a goodbye.

Jenkins is fired before the week is over.


	11. Chapter 11

K: Kiss

The first kiss catches him off guard.

Lucius is just stepping out of the shower when Narcissa comes in trailing silk and lace. He's barely said good morning before she kisses him, soft and tender and fleeting. He bends, tries to lean in, tries to pull her to him but she's already floating away, chattering about dinner with her parents next weekend.

The second kiss also catches him off guard.

Lucius is reading the morning paper at the breakfast table when Narcissa plants herself in his lap, "Interesting article?"

He's about to answer when she kisses him, it tingles and burns, in a good way, and god he wants more but she's off again, disappearing up the stairs before he can catch her.

He thinks he's spotted a pattern by the third kiss but really he hasn't.

She shows up at his office with Draco and a picnic basket and _would you like to join us for lunch?_ Lucius takes the rest of the day off, and is rewarded with a kiss. He holds her still this time but Narcissa manages to slip away when Draco jumps onto his back, demanding to be carried.

Lunch is good, they find a shady spot in the park and spend hours answering every question Draco's two year old mind can come up with (mostly things like _'why is the sky blue?' _you know, important stuff).

Lucius is ambushed with ten more lovely, wonderful, infuriatingly too short kisses by the end of the day.

He's waiting for her behind the door, watching her put Draco to bed and the minute she's in the hall he's got her arms pinned above her head and her back against a convenient side table.

"You're trapped," he tells her.

"Oh my,"

"What game are you playing, wife?"

She smiles up at him, tongue poking out to wet her lips, arching her back to press her hips to his, "It's Valentine's Day."

He initiates the fourteenth kiss.

It's passionate and hungry and they almost don't make it back to their bedroom.

It's been a good day.


	12. Chapter 12

L: Looming

_'Birthdays are the best,'_ Draco thinks as she clings tightly to Blaise's hand. They weave through groups of adults and piles of gifts all gathered to celebrate her fifth birthday.

"Where are we going?" she asks, loathe to be away from all the excitement.

"The gardens," he tells her, "I want to give you your birthday gift."

"But you already got me something," a pretty lace parasol, pale yellow with blue ribbon trimming, to match her hair and eyes.

"My mama picked that out," he says, "I have something better."

He leads her to the empty patch of soil where they tried to plant flowers in the spring. Draco had been so disappointed when nothing grew.

"Stay here," Blaise lets go of her hand and walks out onto the empty earth; he takes a deep breath, crouches down, and presses his palms flat to the ground. The air feels tingly and Draco gasps out loud when flowers shoot out of the dirt; daffodils, her favorite.

Blaise sits back, panting, sweat glistening on his brow. "I practiced a lot on mama's roses. Do you like it?" he asks nervously. Draco nods, still in awe. She wracks her brain in search of an appropriate response to such a grand gift.

"And what exactly is going on here?" Lucius looms over the children, expression unreadable.

"Daddy look! Blaise got me daffodils for my birthday! Aren't they pretty?"

She finally decides on giving Blaise a thank you kiss. So she does. Right in front of her father.

Blaise flushes bright red.

Draco doesn't understand why her daddy's eye starts twitching like crazy.


	13. Chapter 13

M: Maze

Diagon Alley is a maze of shops and shoppers, all pushing and shoving and Lucius is already beginning to regret bringing his daughter with him.

"Down, daddy, down!" Draco tugs on her father's collar, "I want to walk!" He sets her down, holding her hand firmly.

"Can we get ice cream later?" Draco asks swinging her arm as Lucius pulls her through the crowded streets.

"We'll get whatever you want sweetheart, but first we've got to go pick up mummy's present." A lovely string of pearls he ordered last week, just because. Lucius Malfoy doesn't need excuses to spoil his wife.

The jewelry shop is crowded with overdressed haughty window shoppers demanding to see this piece and touch that piece and model another piece in front of the mirror; _nouveau riche,_ Lucius sneers in his head. Out loud he calls for the manager who retrieves his keys to unlock a glittering display case. "Here you are Mr. Malfoy."

"Wow," Draco reaches for the necklace but her hand is smacked away harshly. A gaudily dressed woman wearing too much perfume snatches the pearls. "I'm buying this." She announces with a smirk.

"Daddy," Draco whimpers, cradling her hand. Lucius narrows his eyes, barely containing his anger. He spies the woman's husband, a man currently in line for a promotion in the Ministry, standing behind her, green in the face and sweating like a pig.

Lucius raises his eyebrow and the man hastily grabs the necklace from his wife. "What she means, Mr. Malfoy, is that we'll pay for it." His hands are shaking, "Consider it a gift."

"Bertram!"

"Shut up!"

Lucius eyes the necklace, not bothering to take it from the man; he lets the uncomfortable silence stretch.

"But daddy," Draco pulls herself up on a chair, gesturing for her father to lean down so she could whisper to him, "they _touched_ it," she says loud enough for the rest of the room to hear, "mummy can't wear it now."

"You're right Draco."

Bertram looks as though he might faint.

Lucius turns to the manager, "You wouldn't mind though would you?" The manager shakes his head, bewildered.

So the jewelry store manager's wife received an unexpected gift that day. And you can be sure that Bertram never got his promotion.


	14. Chapter 14

N: Nature

The grounds behind Malfoy Manor are extensive, stretching beyond the manicured gardens and well past the iron gates. Here, where grass grows freely and vines curl around trees like lovers, are the best hiding spots for hide and go seek. Of course, Draco and her playmates were never allowed to come here without supervision.

In fact, Draco wasn't even home today, whisked away to spend the sunny afternoon with Papa Cygnus and Nana Druella.

Narcissa ducks under a swinging vine, heart pounding wildly as she flits through the trees. Her heartbeats are too loud, she thinks, he must have heard her by now. She's taken every precaution, dressing in various shades of green, weaving flowers into her hair; she's trying to blend in with the foliage, running, hiding, taking care to cover her tracks.

_Alas!_ An arm snakes around her waist, pulling her into a warm embrace. _Not careful enough._

"I win." Lucius says, scraping his teeth along her neck. He pulls her with him to the ground

"Would you like to claim your prize now?" She asks, straddling his hips.

_"Yes." _


	15. Chapter 15

O: Owls

There's a section of the stables that Lucius Malfoy goes out of his way to avoid, a strange tower-shaped-but-not-quite building that is never unlocked. The only people Narcissa's ever seen enter the place are house elves so when Draco starts to express interest in 'exploring' she's more than happy to encourage her. Curiosity really is an awful thing.

They spend a week holed up in the library, making a checklist, gathering supplies. Girl time, they called it, and shooed Lucius away. And on a particularly sunny morning after he kisses their foreheads and leaves for work, mother and daughter collect their rucksacks from the hiding place under the fourth bookshelf and set off for the tower.

Narcissa checks twice to make sure they're indeed alone, she and Draco had made an effort to wreck the dining room table with every last spoonful of jam to ensure that Dobby would be suitably distracted. She takes a deep breath, preparing to unlock the door.

"Are you nervous mummy?" Draco asks, squeezing her hand tightly.

"A little bit." She admits, stroking her daughter's hair fondly.

"It's okay mummy, I'm nervous too."

"Not too nervous for an adventure I hope."

"Nope, let's go!"

They push open the door together and walk inside cautiously. The floor is wooden and old, groaning under their feet, there's nothing in the room save a set of rickety spiral steps. Draco clings to Narcissa as they ascend the stairs; the creaking and squealing follow them to the second floor. They reach the landing and pause, looking at each other before turning back to the room.

"Oh my"

—

Lucius decides to make it an early day and returns home well before tea time with a spring in his step only to be met by an army of frantic house elves who have somehow _lost their mistress and young miss_. He doesn't even have time to be angry with them because his heart is pounding hard enough to break his ribs and Cissa never said anything about going out today and their coats were still in the closet and he's panicking _oh god, oh god!_

The house elves tell him that they're sure mistress and young miss never actually left the house and they double checked and flooed everywhere they could think of. Lucius is shredding his gloves in worry, leaving bits of torn fabric in his wake as he stalks the grounds, when he notices an open door that shouldn't have been open.

"Oh god no"

He charges up the stairs with his wand in attack position and nearly has a meltdown when he sees his precious girls surround by those vile creatures.

"Hi daddy," sweet Draco waves innocently, unaware of the danger she's in. He moves quickly, blasting spells and almost crushing Cissa's hand as he leads them to safety.

Afterwards, Draco's in the floo telling Blaise about her adventure and Lucius refuses to let go of Narcissa's hand so she has to hold her spoon awkwardly in her other hand. They're having afternoon tea and Narcissa's been nagged into promising never to step foot inside the tower again.

"You might have over done it with the stunning spells."

"Owls are dangerous, Cissa."

"And you know this from experience?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why do we have a tower full of owls anyway?"

"How do you think we send all those party invitations out in one day?"

"Oh."

Lucius sighs and pulls his wife close, "No more adventures okay?"

She nods in agreement, sending Draco a covert wink when she distracts him with a kiss.


	16. Chapter 16

P: Parchment

He's never liked party season, being trapped in a room with a bunch of classless parvenus is no fun for Lucius Malfoy. He likes it even less now that he's discovered how much of his wife's attention it steals from him. Days of going through invite cards and deciding who to rsvp to and who to turn down politely, and when it was their turn to host, weeks of planning and prepping. Currently the manor has been assaulted by another wave of party invites, poor Cissa was nearly buried under the mountain of parchment in the library.

He and Draco had taken turns to make sure she remembered to eat, for his lovely wife often neglected the simplest things when she worked. And finally after two miserable days lacking Cissa's attention, Lucius sets up shop in the library as well.

"This is a bad idea."

"And why is that?"

"Neither of us will get any work done. You're a horrible distraction Lucius."

"I disagree."

He's quiet at first, trying to disprove her point, but he's tired of the paperwork and he kind of expected her to actually talk to him, so he starts to fidget; doodling on the document margins, capping and uncapping the ink bottle, making enough noise for Cissa to shoot him dirty looks from the other side of the room. He makes a game of inching closer to her, a couple centimeters at a time until he's pressed to her side, looping her curls around his fingers.

She replaces her hair with a stack of invites. "Help me?"

This was not the reaction he expected. He tries to read the card, really he does, but his eyes kind of glaze over and he's bending the edges and…

"Ow!" he hisses, "parchment cut." He holds his hand out to her pathetically, trying to pull the face Draco makes that convinces her parents to do anything for her.

"You did it on purpose." But she puts her work down anyway and spends the rest of the afternoon lavishing attention on him.


	17. Chapter 17

Q: Quiet

It's midnight now; the sky is dark and still. Lucius strains his ears in his half woken state, listening for his wife's even breaths.

It's quiet.

His fingers meet empty sheets and it takes him a full minute to register that she's not beside him. He hears a rustle of fabric, turning just in time to see his little wife slip out the door. Lucius pulls on a dressing gown and follows her, shadows her steps to the library where Draco's school supplies were organised in neat rows on the carpet, ready to be packed. Narcissa inspects the textbooks, once, twice, three times. She arranges and rearranges the ink bottles, fiddles with the potions ingredients, and Lucius can almost see the nervous energy crackling around her.

"Cissa," he calls, when he sees her circling around the unpacked school trunk, pacing and wringing her hands. He swoops in then, and wraps her inside his dressing gown, tells her to relax. "Breathe Cissa."

She buries her face in his chest, nails digging into his sleeping shirt. "I'm just nervous," she says, "and worried, so very worried."

He lets her ramble on about cramped dormitories and drafty classrooms until she tires herself out, mumbling words of reassurance into her hair, rocking her in his arms.

Draco finds her parents asleep on the library floor the next morning.


	18. Chapter 18

R: Reprise (Literally a reprise of _Looming_. This is what the parents were up to…)

Mrs. Zabini giggles into her champagne when she spots the children wandering off to the gardens. "Oh Cissy," she says, "aren't they adorable?"

"All children are adorable." Narcissa says diplomatically, steering her tipsy friend to a high backed chair.

"Not Weasley children."

"Lucius!"

"It's true!"

"I wasn't talking about Weasley children," Mrs. Zabini hiccups and pats Narcissa's cheek, "I was talking about _our_ children."

"Our children?"

"Yes!" She squeals and grasps Narcissa's hands excitedly, "They're adorable together aren't they?"

Narcissa groans mentally, starts thinking of ways to save the woman, but her husband has already caught on. His face grows darker and the glass in his hand cracks a tiny bit, he's not wringing Mrs. Zabini's neck though so Cissa counts it as a win.

"Lucius." She says, a warning. Too late; he thrusts his half empty wine glass at one of the house elves and stalks to the gardens. Narcissa tries to follow but Mrs. Zabini has somehow tangled their arms together, holding her back and cooing about _grandbabies._

When she finally makes it to the gardens, Draco is bouncing on her feet and _Blaise is the bestest friend Mummy he magicked a garden for me!_ Narcissa manages to discreetly remove Lucius' wand, giving him the sternest look she can muster, and ushers them all inside for cake and pudding.

Later, when the guests have gone home and Draco is asleep, she finds her husband sulking in front of their bedroom window, glaring at the cheerful patch of daffodils outside.

"They're just children." She says, smoothing his furrowed brows with a kiss.

"Children," he mutters, "he was practically trying to woo her."

Cissa laughs and leads her husband to bed. "They're five years old, Lucius. Can't this wait till Draco goes to school?"

"School?"

Lucius does not sleep at all that night.


	19. Chapter 19

S: Summer

For as long as Draco can remember, the last days of summer were always celebrated on the beach with great bonfires and fireworks, and daddy would carry her on his shoulders, so she could see over all the too tall adults, and let her eat all the sweets she wanted even when mummy told him not to. Everyone she knew would gather here, there would be games and food and Uncle Roddy always told the best scary stories.

The sun is just beginning to set when Papa Cygnus let's her light the first bonfire with him. It's bright and beautiful, washing everything in a pinky orange glow. Her friends are all here and Auntie Bella's waving sparklers around, everything's perfect like it always is. But for some reason, instead of joining in and chasing after her aunt like she always does, Draco's quiet and sullen. There's a strange heavy feeling tugging on her heart, it's making her sad and nervous and all she wants to do is go home and stay in her room forever.

"What's wrong poppet?" Mummy wraps a blanket around her and Draco feels ten times better. She snuggles into her mother's arms, twirls her fingers into her mother's curls, and suddenly she realises why she's so unhappy.

"I don't want to go to school mummy."

"Why not?"

"Because I'll be gone for months and you and daddy will forget me and everyone will forget me and I just don't want to go." She sniffles but doesn't cry, buries her face into the blanket.

"Oh poppet," Narcissa holds her daughter close. "Mummy doesn't want you to go either, but not because I would forget you." She tilts Draco's face up and smooths back her hair, "I'm afraid you would have so much fun with your friends, that you would forget _me_."

Draco looks at her for a long while, then breaks into a grin. "Silly mummy, I'll write to you every day. I promise."

"Cissy! Stop hogging my niece!" Bellatrix whirls by in a flurry of scarves and sparks. "Come on Draco, Uncle Roddy and I are getting ice cream."

The rest of the night is perfect, like it always is.


	20. Chapter 20

T: Torte

By the time everything's packed and ready to go, there's an obscenely large box of pastries strapped to Draco's school trunk.

"She is not taking that with her."

"Oh darling, it's just a box of pastries."

"A box of pastries that weighs more than she does!"

"They're chocolate tortes, Cissa. They are hardly going to weigh more than our daughter."

"That's not the point. There's a snack trolley on the train for a reason, Lucius."

"Yes but they don't sell chocolate tortes now do they?"

"Lucius…"

"She asked me if she could have one what was I supposed to do?"

"Not buy the entire bakery."


	21. Chapter 21

U: Understand (guest starring Severus Snape)

The confrontation is loud and reviling and usually he would be okay with just retreating to his quiet office to grade papers or something but this is happening _in_ his office so Snape is not okay with it. He can feel the beginnings of a headache gather behind his eyes as he glares at the group assembled in the cramped room. The only thing worse than first year Slytherins were their parents.

It would have been fine, a pleasure almost, to deal with parents from the other houses (Hufflepuffs practically wither when they see him) but the problem with _his_ students' parents was that they were all his old schoolmates and friends and damn if they didn't play that card shamelessly. Which is why he'd been avoiding this for weeks, skipping out on meals so the headmaster couldn't catch him. And he'd been successful too until this morning when the last of his carefully rationed junk food officially ran out. He'd just sat down (on the farthest chair away from Dumbledore, dodging his gaze like a pro), when an army (an actual army, they were just missing the armour and weapons) of owls flew straight to the Slytherin table. Or more specifically the first year Slytherins' section of the table. Dumbledore had called him out then, _'You should speak to the parents, Severus. I know they love their children but care packages every morning is a little extreme don't you think?'_ And so here he was, stuck in his office dealing with 'the situation' (Sinistra had named it, giggling when he made the death march to the meeting).

"Look, I understand that you miss your children but−"

"If you understand then there shouldn't be a problem!"

"Goyle−"

"This is ridiculous. We are allowed to send our children care packages!"

"Parkinson−"

"Quiet!"

And the room goes silent because Bellatrix Lestrange just smashed an empty jar on the table. She narrows her eyes at Snape and says, "Explain to me why I'm being banned from sending things to my niece."

"Isn't it obvious?" Lucius interrupts finally; Snape had been blinking SOS at him for the past half hour. "You lot have been abusing the package delivery system and now none of us are allowed to use it." The other parents of course are suitably offended and Snape feeling vindictive decides to say, "Actually Lucius, _you_ seem to be one of the worst offenders."

And the arguing starts again.

"How about I make you a deal Severus?" Narcissa says to him quietly while everyone else is engaged in a battle of I-can-yell-louder-than-you.

"What deal?"

"Lift the ban for Lucius and myself, and I will herd everybody out of here."

"I can't do that Cissy, they'll be back next week complaining about favoritism."

"It'll be our secret. I can have the owls send things directly to you; all you have to do is pass it along."

Normally he would not be okay with this, but his headache is impairing his judgement and Cissa is always so convincing.

"Deal."

It takes her less than thirty seconds to break up the fight. Narcissa leans into Lucius and tells him she's tired and _can we go home now?_ Which he agrees to of course, Bella is right behind them and the room is empty in record speed. Snape is so grateful he almost sends her a thank you note.

He is less grateful a week later when the owls invade his office.


	22. Chapter 22

V: Various (things that happen while Draco is at school…)

1. Bear the Doberman brings home a stray cat and hides her in Draco's room for two weeks before Narcissa finds out. She moves the cat into the master bedroom even though Lucius protests the whole time. Lucius names the cat, Cat, out of spite.

2. Cat makes a nest in the closet out of Lucius' winter coats and becomes Lucius' new rival for Cissa's attention. Cat also pees on Lucius' pillow, a lot.

3. Lucius tries to give Cat away to Roddy and Bella. Bear swoops in to save the day and they retaliate by trashing Lucius' study. Cissa sides with the pets.

4. They realise Cat was pregnant when she gives birth to a litter of kittens under their bed.

5. Cissa renovates the old nursery so Cat and the new kittens can have their own room. Lucius moped for a week.

6. Cissa takes Lucius on a surprise date to get him out of his 'funk'. It was very romantic. They shared an ice cream cone.

7. Bella pet sits once. She loses Bear in the park and makes Roddy take the day off work so they can search for him. Bear actually found his way home by himself and was sleeping in Cat's room the whole time.

8. One time, Lucius takes Cat to the vet and runs into Arthur Weasley. Cat pees on Weasley's leg. Cat and Lucius become best friends.


	23. Chapter 23

W: Weasley

Lucius knows he's lost the battle the moment they turn their doe eyes on him but damn it he will not go down without one last fight. "We have ice cream at home." He says, mentally steeling himself for whatever attack they have planned. And then Cissa pouts and his resolve crumbles like the biscuit Bear decided to decimate this morning.

"Fine," he sighs, he never wins these fights anyway. Draco cheers, grabbing her mother's hand and hurrying off to the ice cream parlour, leaving Lucius on the platform with her luggage. He's still deciding between sending the luggage home or taking it with him when something collides into his back and almost knocks him over.

"Malfoy."

"Weasley."

The child who crashed into his back is red and freckled and staring up at Lucius with something akin to terror on his face, Weasley's son. Arthur runs a tired hand over his brow, "What do we say Ron?"

"I, I-I'm sorry sir." The boy stammers. Lucius nods, turning to retrieve his daughter's trunk, but the boy speaks again. "Um, sir, are you, that is, um…" Lucius furrows his brows and looks to Arthur who just shrugs.

"Are you Draco Malfoy's dad?" The boy asks in a rush. Lucius is not quite sure what to say other than _yes,_ and then…

"Daddy!" His girls are back with two scoops of strawberry and one chocolate. Draco skips towards them, blonde curls bouncing. "We were waiting for you daddy."

"I'm sorry poppy seed I was held up." Out of the corner of his eye he sees the Weasley boy stare at his daughter and flush a brighter red than before.

"H-Hello Draco."

"Ronald." She says then walks back to Cissa, ignoring the way the Weasley boy almost swoons.

Lucius is not amused.


	24. Chapter 24

X: I don't have a word prompt for x so let's have a flashback instead (requested by little-red-one on tumblr)

Everything is set up the night before, all polished and elegant and beautiful because this is the wedding of the year, maybe even of the decade. The grounds are draped in white and silver, bright and clean and pure; flowers hanging from the eaves, curling, twisting in intricate patterns. The setting is Malfoy Manor and it is breathtaking.

It is not so breathtaking, Lucius thinks, when the weather decides to shoo everyone inside and proceeds drench the world with abnormally fat drops of rain. The wedding is still every bit as perfect as it's supposed to be, yet he can't help but feel a little upset, because in his dreams (a recurring dream actually, where his bride is always Cissa), the sun is reflecting off her hair and she's standing in front of him, bathed in light, telling him _'I do,'_ but there is no sun today. Also he can't find his wife ('_wife!'_ He cheers in his head).

He dodges well-wishers and tipsy relatives, avoids the whirlwind that is Bellatrix and Rodolphus swaying a drunken tango. He's scanning the room with falcon eyes when he sees her, and of course his new wife is out in the rain.

"Cissa." He's at the door with an almost pleading look on his face. She smiles, holds her hand out to him, and they stand in their respective poses until he heaves a sigh and steps into the garden, hair soaked in seconds. She tucks herself into his arms, smiling up at him and his breath catches at the sight of the light in her hair and raindrops on her lashes. And he's not sure what he says next but she's laughing and she's saying _'I do.'_

This is infinitely better than his dream.


	25. Chapter 25

Y: (are we there) Yet

Travelling should not be difficult for the modern wizard, with all their brooms and floos and apparition, but somehow it still manages to be the most mind numbing, time consuming process in the world. One can only expect the International Floo Hub to experience technical difficulties when you're on a tight schedule.

"Are we there yet?"

"No poppet, they haven't fixed the floos yet."

"But we've been here for _two hours."_

Indeed they have, stuck at the way station in Berlin waiting for the situation to be sorted out. They were supposed be in Barcelona, Lucius had left the day before and Narcissa and Draco were to meet him there, and now…

There's a commotion at the floo gates and Cissa pulls her daughter close as the crowd surges forward, she stands on tiptoes trying to see over the too-tall-people. The floos have not been fixed yet; she hears floo attendants try to calm the irritated travellers and steers Draco away so they won't be trampled.

Draco is saying something but it's too loud for Cissa to hear, her daughter rolls her eyes, grabs hold of Cissa's shoulders and turns her to face the crowd…that her husband is trying to squeeze through, dragging his suitcase and looking slightly dishevelled.

"Lucius? What are you doing here?"

"We're on vacation."

"Yes but you're supposed to be Barcelona."

"I can't be expected to stay in Barcelona while my wife and daughter are in Berlin." He leads them out of the way station, telling them about their new vacation plans and _we've been planning to visit the summer house in Munich anyway._

"How did you get through the floo?" Cissa asks him.

"Can't reveal all my secrets, darling."


	26. Chapter 26

Z: Zero

On a scale of one to ten Lucius' level of respect for men who flirt with his wife is zero, closely tipping towards negative one (or negative one hundred), Cornelius Fudge is no exception. So the plan was to simultaneously lob a net full of half veiled insults and backhanded compliments at the man while inflicting upon him the 'enchanting' attentions of Dolores Umbridge. Nowhere in that plan had he accounted for Draco's dramatic entrance.

His daughter is a streak of platinum blonde, being pulled by Bear the giant Doberman who barrels into the room knocking down several people, including Fudge and Umbridge, in his path of destruction. Bear circles his master, tongue lolling out of his mouth, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"I'm sorry daddy; he was not supposed to do that."

Lucius waves away her apology, giving Bear a piece of ham from his plate and patting him on the head. Bear is practically preening. He also pees on Fudge's shoes.


End file.
